It didn't take long for GM Badkitten to get to work with this Avs roster, his first move was hiring Dallas Eakins as head coach, a move loved by Avs fans and analysts. Next Badkitten did a little working with the roster, trading forward David Jones, a 2013 3rd and 2013 4th for Danny DeKeyser. Badkitten said "We thank David for his years here, but with the contract the previous GM gave him we knew we had to ship him out. DeKeyser is a young defenseman we like and look forward to him being a main cog in our future defense. Next Badkitten traded Greg Zanon, Aaron Palushaj, and a 2014 2nd, and a 2014 3rd for Penguins prospect Beau Bennett and forward Matt Cooke. "Bennett played here in Denver during college and has the look of a top 6 forward in the making. We love adding him to our core.

The San Jose Sharks hope to have playoff success this year unlike last season.

The San Jose Sharks are going to the 2012-2013 NHL playoffs. With 97 points in the regular season, they have enough to be placed 3rd in the Western Conference and 8th in the league. Newcomer Martin Brodeur helped get the Sharks to where they are now. Playing 15 games after the Trade Deadline with the Sharks, he placed a 2.20 GAA while winning 10 out of the 15 games he played. "When I was on they Devils, we weren't winning as a team, so it was very disheartening and very hard to play game in and game out without getting your confidence crushed. Here in San Jose though, this team has it all. I feel we have the tools to win it all", says Brodeur. "I'm glad to be part of this team; it's something special to be part of." While the Sharks did jump in the standing, there are a few things that they could improve on, one being the penalty kill. The Sharks started off strong in the beginning of the regular season, they came back down to earth, being an 87.4% on the PK. With that said, anything can happen in the playoffs, so the whole City of the San Jose will have to wait and see.

The fans are upset, the media wont shut up about it and everybody, just everybody want the two russian legends gone. The Sabres has yet again missed the playoffs and as usual the fan-base and the media want the everyone gone so they can rebuild and become a winning team.

The ones in charge aren't that quick and harsh with those decisions as they told the media and the Fedorov&Kozlov will be given time to achieve what Buffalo has been craving for.

Fedorov told the press that him and Slava will sit down and discuss what went wrong and what pieces are missing as they are allowed to not resign underperforming players aswell as buyout others and promote youngster to the NHL-team aswell as the drafting of course. Which will be important as Buffalo will pick pretty high this year.

What is remarkable is that the AHL-team with the first lineup looking like this: Johan Larsson-Luke Adam-Joel Armia, made it to the conference finals this year, pretty strong performance and that will probably give the youngsters some push in their development.

Sabres Stats

Player

Games

Goals

Assists

Points

Thomas Vanek

80

32

17

49

Tyler Ennis

82

14

31

45

Christian Erhoff

82

9

36

45

Tyler Myers

82

8

33

41

Drew Stafford

77

22

18

40

Andrej Sekera

82

5

31

36

Cody Hodgson

78

11

22

33

Ville Leino

76

13

20

33

Mikhail Grigorenko

72

13

20

33

Marcus Foligno

75

16

10

26

Nathan Gerbe

81

8

14

22

Steve Ott

82

7

9

16

Jochen Hecht

74

7

6

13

Patrick Kaleta

82

5

6

11

Brayden McNabb

55

1

6

7

Kevin Porter

67

1

6

7

Mike Weber

82

0

6

6

John Scott

25

0

4

4

Alexander Sulzer

49

2

2

4

Cody McCormick

33

3

0

3

Adam Pardy

36

0

1

1

Dennis Persson

3

0

0

0

Drew Schiestel

21

0

0

0

Name

Games

Wins

Shutouts

Ryan Miller

62

22

3

Jhonas Enroth

22

14

1

We had no real pointgetter said Kozlov to the press, we had players underperforming in the assist and scoring-department and it's obviously my fault for not putting on the best lines for getting that. We can't have another season being second worst in the league in goalscoring (St. Louis was the worst), Vanek and Stafford did okay seasons as they both broke the 30 respectively the 20-goal barrier but other than that this is not an acceptable season offensively. The defense on the other hand Kozlov highly praised as it did make Buffalo contend for that precious playoff-spot.

San Jose went of to the playoffs after being seeded 3rd after Vancouver who yet again won the President's Trophy. But it was the Sharks who drew the longer straw as they proceeded to the Stanley Cup-finals where they won over stacked Pittsburgh Penguins. Ovechkin didn't win the Cup this year neither but he won both the Art Ross with 97 goals aswell as the Maurice Trophy with as much as 62! goals. Henrik Sedin was this season's MVP, as Lubomir Visnovsky suprisingly won the James Norris with his new team, The Islanders. Jonathan Huberdeau won as expected the Calder trophy for best rookie what was more suprisingly was that Antti Niemi won the Hart Trophy for best player during the playoffs, but he didn't won the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender that was instead fellow countryman Pekka Rinne who did that. Datsyuk became yet again the best defensive forward in the league after a three years of not being awarded that.

I'm starting up a Detroit GM Mode. I did edit several players and prospects. I am playing with injuries off. Also I made a trade White & Coliacovo to Dallas for R. Smith and Jace Coyle. This is the current line up to start preseason with.

The answer to "Will the Florida Panthers qualify for the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs?" is "yes".

After trading away Dmitry Kulikov and acquiring Danny DeKeyser and Bobby Ryan, the Panthers went on a remarkable run down the stretch to clinch the 8th seed in the East. After the trade deadline, the Panthers went 14-4, picking up 28 points. They finished their season on a ten game winning streak and a record of 43-32-7, 5 points ahead of the 9th-seeded Winnipeg Jets. Bobby Ryan scored 16 points in the 22 games he played with the Panthers since being traded.

Florida will face the Philadelphia Flyers in round one of the playoffs, who finished with 110 points. The Panthers and their fans are not scared, however. The Flyers are not incredibly strong defensively, and rely on high-powered offense. However, the Panthers have the 8th-best goals against per game rating in the league (2.44) and the 10th best penalty kill (84.7%). Philadelphia's penalty kill is 23rd in the league. Most observers see this as a match-up that could go either way, especially since the Panthers are only two years removed from upsetting the 1st seeded Carolina Hurricanes in round one of the 2013 playoffs.

After the halfway point the Detroit Red Wings are 24-15-2, good for 7th in the Conference and 11th in the league. The team is 4th in the league in GFPG and 13th in GAPG. The PP is clicking at 18.9% (9th) and the PK is at 79.9% (27th). For having 5 rookies playing regularly the team is happy where they're at.

Player

Games

Goals

Assists

Points

Henrik Zetterberg

41

14

19

33

Pavel Datsyuk

41

9

22

31

Damien Brunner

41

17

14

31

Gustav Nyquist

41

9

20

29

Valteri Filppula

41

11

17

28

Niklas Kronwall

41

3

24

27

Johan Franzen

41

10

14

24

Tomas Tatar

41

10

12

22

Brendan Smith

41

7

9

16

Jakub Kindl

41

3

11

14

Jonathon Ericsson

41

1

12

13

Darren Helm

41

9

4

13

Kyle Quincey

41

2

8

10

Justin Abdelkader

41

3

7

10

Danny DeKeyser

41

1

9

10

Joakim Andersson

41

6

2

8

Jordin Tootoo

41

2

3

5

Daniel Cleary

25

1

2

3

Todd Bertuzzi

16

0

0

0

Name

Games

Wins

Loses]

GAA

SV%

Jimmy Howard

35

20

13

2.36

.920

Jonas Gustavsson

8

4

2

2.63

.918

These are the current lines I'm rolling, just switching out guys on the 4th line to find a player to fix the PK.

To end the season my first line of Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Frazen really stepped their offensive game up. I put Samulson with Miller and Andersson and that line really clicked also as well as my other two lines. All my players were positive +/- besides the scratched players of Tootoo (-9), Cleary (-6), and Bertuzzi (-1). All 5 of my rookies really exceeded my expectations point wise. Overall I'm very happy with the first season. Now playoff time!

Playoffs were a disappointment. Lost in the first round. Not going to do a right up, but lost to Dallas 4-1 in the series. Now to the draft and free agency. I doubt I do anything big in the draft or free agency though. I'm going to keep it realistic as possible. Dallas ended up going to the Stanley Cup Finals to lose to...Toronto haha

At the Trade Deadline, the Avs were a league worst, 21-32-9. So they sold, they dealt Steve Downie + Colin Smith+Troy Bourke for Phoenix 1st 2013(currently 3rd overall) as well as P.A Parenteau + a few prospects for Nashville 2013 1st (Currently 2nd overall)

GM Badkitten "We are going to miss Steve and P.A and thank them for their contributions but Nashville and Phoenix both had their picks on the block and we realize we need to look towards the future"

The Avs had an amazing draft this year, drafting 1st,2nd and 3rd overall. The Avs took hometown boy Seth Jones with the No.1 pick. He will anchor the defense for many years with Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie, Then they took Center Nathan Mackinnon from the Halifax Mooseheads, MacKinnon will be huge part of a great 1-2 punch with Matt Duchene in the future. The Avs also drafted Mackinnons teammate Jonathan Drouin. A dynamic winger with elite IQ he will be the cog on the left side next to Mac.

The Avs had an amazing draft this year, drafting 1st,2nd and 3rd overall. The Avs took hometown boy Seth Jones with the No.1 pick. He will anchor the defense for many years with Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie, Then they took Center Nathan Mackinnon from the Halifax Mooseheads, MacKinnon will be huge part of a great 1-2 punch with Matt Duchene in the future. The Avs also drafted Mackinnons teammate Jonathan Drouin. A dynamic winger with elite IQ he will be the cog on the left side next to Mac.

As the time has come for doing some real changes to the team, Fedorov and Kozlov sat down and discussed how they wanted the team to look like and what was needed to draft, but also which players that didn't have a future in the organisation. It came clear to them that they want a more offensive and skilled team that can outplay the opponents aswell as astound the fans.

Unfortunately i forgot to turn the draft-picks to classic so instead we didn't have a fourth but we had St. Louis 2nd round pick. We were looking for a winger, a scoring winger for the years to come and there weren't that many around the 12th pick, but the were centers like Klimchuck etc but he didn't impress the Russian duo. So they looked further down the list and found highly skilled Anthony Duclair which strongest assets is his skating. In the second round we picked two finns, a goalie and a center sniper. We also came across two i believe can be late round steals in this draft, a russian right winger and canadian left winger. Overall both Fedorov and Kozlov felt satisfied with the draft, although they could have gotten an ever better player in the first round if they were just picking one spot above.

Summary of the draft-picks made by the Sabres

Drafted

Name

Age

Country

Position

Role

Overall

Potential

1 (12)

Anthony Duclair

18

Canada

Left Wing

SNP

53

4 stars

2 (St.Louis pick, 33)

Richard Ullberg

20

Finland

Goaltender

BUT

60

3 1/2

2 (42)

Juuso Ikonen

18

Finland

Center

SNP

59

3 1/2

3 (72)

Sergei Tolchinsky

18

Russia

Right Wing

SNP

53

3 1/2

5 (132)

Geordie Maguire

18

Canada

Left Wing

TWF

48

3 1/2

6 (162)

Shayne Rover

21

Canada

Defenseman

DFD

58

2 1/2

7 (192)

Anton Cederholm

18

Sweden

Defenseman

DFD

54

2 1/2

Then the time came to decide who was part of the future Buffalo Sabres and who wasn't. It was clear that Buffalo needs to let the high-potential youngsters get ice-time so that they can develop their skills instead of clinging on to players who soon will retire anyway. That's why players like Jochen Hecht and Alexander Sulzer didn't get an extended contract. Instead players who greatly improved their game like Mike Weber and Alex Biega got bigger contracts, which they deserved. Several players who were drafted last year or this year got contracts, some of them will be playing the juniors while others will be given top-line ice-time in Rochester.

Buffalo Contracts heading into the 2013-14 season

PLAYER

CAP HIT

Length

Status this season

Thomas Vanek

$7.145M

1 year

NHL

Ryan Miller

$6.250M

1 year

NHL

Tyler Myers

$5.500M

6 years

NHL

Ville Leino

$4.500M

4 years

NHL

Alex Biega

$4.100M

3 years

NHL

Drew Stafford

$4.000M

2 years

NHL

Christian Ehrhoff

$4.000M

7 years

NHL

Steve Ott

$2.950M

1 years

NHL

Mike Weber

$2.835M

4 years

NHL

Tyler Ennis

$2.815M

1 year

NHL

Andrej Sekera

$2.750M

2 years

NHL

Cody Hodgson

$2.090M

3 years

NHL

Mikhail Grigorenko

$1.775

2 years

NHL

Nathan Gerbe

$1.435M

1 year

NHL

Jhonas Enroth

$1.395M

3 years

NHL

Zemgus Girgensons

$1.395M

2 years

AHL

Joel Armia

$1.275M

2 year

AHL

Patrick Kaleta

$1.250M

2 years

NHL

Cody McCormick

$1.275M

1 year

AHL

Jacob Lagace

$1.025M

1 year

NHL

Luke Adam

$0.955M

2 years

NHL

Brayden McNabb

$0.900M

1 year

NHL

Marcus Foligno

$0.900M

1 year

NHL

John Scott

$0.895M

1 year

AHL

Kevin Sundher

$0.870M

2 years

NHL

Jeremy Gauthier-Leduc

$0.870M

2 years

AHL

Mark Pysyk

$0.870M

2 years

AHL

Johan Larsson

$0.870M

2 years

AHL

Corey Tropp

$0.800M

1 year

AHL

Daniel Catennacci

$0.800M

3 years

AHL

Matt Mackenzie

$0.750M

1 year

AHL

Adam Pardy

$0.690M

2 years

NHL

Alex Lepkowski

$0.655M

3 years

AHL

Anthony Duclair

$0.640M

3 years

Juniors

Matt Hackett

$0.635M

1 year

AHL

Sergei Tolchinsky

$0.585M

3 years

Juniors

Matt Ellis

$0.575M

3 years

AHL

Nathan Lieuwen

$0.570M

2 years

AHL

Nick Crawford

$0.560M

1 year

AHL

Andrei Makarov

$0.555M

3 years

AHL

Kevin Porter

$0.535M

1 year

NHL

Geordie Maguire

$0.525M

3 years

Juniors

Shayne Rover

$0.525M

3 years

AHL

Juuso Ikonen

$0.525M

3 years

AHL

Shawn Szydlowski

$0.525M

1 year

AHL

As you can see we got pretty favorable contracts who Sekera, Gerbe and Ennis. But especially Cody Hodgsons contract is one i am truly greatful for because to have a young future firstline center at that cheap by the third year is really something. I'm a little bit worried about Vaneks and Miller's contract as they ends after the season, probably i'll get Vanek below his former contract making more cap-space for the team but i'm not sure about Miller. Shall i keep him with that contract or go with Hackett&Enroth as goalies?

Anyway, here's the lineup for this season. The owner wants Fedorov and Kozlov to improve their record with 38 wins and a playoff-spot, which should be managable i believe.

The San Jose Sharks are out of the playoffs. In Game 6 of the 1st round, against the Calgary Flames, the Sharks gave an absolutely horrible effort, losing 5-0 at the Saddledome. Martin Brodeur was in the net, hover it was definitely not his fault; the defense was atrocious. The top defense line, consisting of Dan Boyle and Brent Burns were a -5 combined (Boyle:-3; Burns:-2). "We just weren't good enough", said Boyle. "No one is to blame except us, Marty (Broduer) played fantastic, we let him and the whole team down today. We just have to get over with what happened and move. We cannot dwell on this loss too much or we we'll get into the same trouble as this year."

With that said, GM Flamesrule has openly stated that changes are to come into the offseason. "With the series loss, we as an organization will sit down and see where this team is at. Once we figure that out, changes will be made to the team. This failure is not acceptable."

Facing them in the fifth game of the season. I'm behind 2-3 and i'm putting pressure on their defense so i could get at least one shot before it all ends. With 15 seconds to go Filpulla wins a faceoff in their d-zone and pass the puck up to Franzén who has a open net. But Vanek somehow pulls the puck away from him before he shoots and make a back-hand pass to Leino with 2 seconds left on the clock. At 1.6 he skates over the blueline where he directly shoots at 1.4 seconds left on the clock. Jimmy Howard somehow manage to fumble the puck between his legs and at 0.3 seconds on the clock the Buffalo Sabres has evened the score.

Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov is frustrated after Panthers forward Jonathan
Huberdeau beats him on a breakaway.

Yes, that's right. For the second time in the past three years, as the 8th seed, the Florida Panthers have upset the 1st seeded team in the playoffs. In the 2013 playoffs they knocked out the Carolina Hurrircanes in seven games, and this year, in the 2015 playoffs, they did the same to the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Panthers showed everyone what they were made of right away, winning the first three games to get a 3-0 lead in the series. Florida had won their last 10 games of the regular season, so the first three games of the playoffs gave them a 13-game winning streak. However, the Flyers battled back and almost pulled off a rare comeback, winning the next three games to force game seven. But the Panthers did not choke, defeating the Flyers 4-2 in game seven.

After game four concluded with a 2-1 score in favor of the Toronto Maple Leafs, pundits said that the Florida Panthers' season was over. No one expected them to fight back from a 3-1 series deficit. But as usual, the Panthers proved them all wrong. This series was packed with great moments, including an overtime goal from Leafs defenseman Korbinian Holzer in game one, a 37 save shutout from Jacob Markstrom in game five, and a hat trick performance from Bobby Ryan in game six.

The Florida Panthers will face the 4th-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals. It will be a tough series for the Panthers, possibly even more-so than their previous two. The Penguins are filled with star players, including Sidney Crosby, James Neal, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and up-and-coming winger Jonathan Drouin.